Build a powerful gaming PC out of Black Friday deals

Every year, we have a tradition of putting together a Black Friday PC out of the best deals we can find. Our normal best gaming PC build guide aims for around $1,250 for its budget, while the high-end build goes for $2,000. But on Black Friday weekend, when prices on some components drop through the floor, can we do better? Yes, or you wouldn’t be reading this.
We’re going to do two parts lists this year, one for a midrange PC and one for a high-end build. The goal here is to get a great deal, and we’ll regularly update the parts as needed—because the best deals aren’t going to last.

As a point of reference, there’s an HP Omen PC selling for $1,499 that we want to meet or beat on price and performance. That will be the high-end build, while the mainstream build will shoot for a budget half as high. Both builds are designed to handle all of today’s games without struggling, with 1080p ultra being the target for the midrange build and 1440p high on the high-end system. Here are the current best picks, and we’ve done our best to ensure all the parts will work and fit together.
As usual, we aren’t including the keyboard, mouse, or monitor in these builds.
Black Friday high-end PC build
Everything you need for a high-end, overclocked custom PC, including Windows. You could upgrade to a larger SSD, or choose a different case, but that’s about the only thing you’d need to think about swapping out.
Total Price: $1,658.92 (save $466)
Yeah, beating that HP Omen price is tough! Tim was so impressed by the deal that he bought one. We do win a few points for including the unlocked K-series CPU with a liquid cooler, plus a larger high-end M.2 SSD. Is that worth the extra $150? We’d like to think so.

EVGA Z370 Classified K | $129.99 (save $150)Better known for its graphics cards, EVGA also makes high-end Intel motherboards. The Z370 Classified K is the current high-end offering for Coffee Lake CPUs and includes support for SLI and overclocking, plus three M.2 slots (one Key-E only). Buy at Newegg

Enermax ECA3520 | $49.99 (save $20)There are many cases, and opinions vary greatly on what looks good. This Enermax supports 240/280mm coolers, which was a requirement for our high-end build, and it’s 29 percent off right now. Buy at Newegg

Black Friday midrange PC build
Our midrange build is still potent, but we’re going for savings rather than all-out performance. As such, AMD’s Ryzen CPUs are the much better option right now, and the same goes for RX 580 graphics cards.
Total Price: $671.91 (save $231)
The closest you’ll come to a similar prebuilt deal right now is this Dell at Office Depot, for $480. We don’t beat it on price (mostly thanks to the Windows license), but we do provide a better CPU, motherboard, storage, and graphics card.

Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.